The Shuttleworth Foundation is releasing an open source school information management system worldwide.
SchoolTool 1.0 is targeted at primary and secondary schools, and is in beta testing and will be deployed at the beginning of the 2010 academic year.
According to the SchoolTool Web site, the program does not depend on a technology-intensive environment, but is aimed at schools with broad access to technology in the form of computers, laptops, PDAs, cellphones and wireless pagers. SchoolTool will leverage those communication technologies to deliver the needed information.
A Shuttleworth Foundation statement says schools, service providers, government agencies, vendors, hackers and other interested parties are invited to test, use, deploy and offer feedback on SchoolTool.
The tool comprises several applications, including customisable student demographics, parent (or guardian) contact management, attendance, grade book, calendaring, resource booking and report card generation.
"We hope to provide a single tool that will be readily adapted to the specific regulatory requirements and practices of different countries and regions, but that retains enough common functionality to make a shared development effort worthwhile," says founder, Mark Shuttleworth.
SchoolTool was built using Shuttleworth`s flagship programming language, Python, and was also used by him to develop the software on which his first successful business was built. The international SchoolTool development team says it envisions the program eventually taking care of all aspects of school administration.
The tool will allow teachers to run personal grade books on their desktops or laptops. Individual schools can also use SchoolTool for primary student information systems, or to supplement other systems.
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